maximum test » Guillaume 'le Troubadour' "the Troubadou..." d'Aquitaine IX duc d'Aquitaine et VII comte de Poitou (1071-1126)

Persoonlijke gegevens Guillaume 'le Troubadour' "the Troubadou..." d'Aquitaine IX duc d'Aquitaine et VII comte de Poitou 

• Alternatieve namen: William VII of Aquitaine V of Poitiers, Guillaume or Guilhem d'Aquitaine, The Troubador
• Roepnaam is the Troubadou....
• Hij is geboren op 22 oktober 1071Bordeaux
  Aquitania France.
• Hij werd gedoopt in Of, Toulouse, France.
• Alternatief: Hij werd gedoopt in Ct of Poitiers (Aquitaine line).
• Alternatief: Hij werd gedoopt in het jaar 1071 in Duke of, Aquitaine, Gascony, France.
• Alternatief: Hij werd gedoopt in het jaar 1071 in Duke of, Aquitaine, Gascony, France.
• Alternatief: Hij werd gedoopt in het jaar 1071 in Duke of, Aquitaine, Gascony, France.
• Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk.
• Alternatief: Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk.
• Alternatief: Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk op 26 november 1991.
• Alternatief: Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk op 26 november 1991 in PORTL.
• Alternatief: Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk op 26 november 1991.
• Alternatief: Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk op 15 september 1992.
• Alternatief: Gedoopt (op 8-jarige leeftijd of later) door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk op 8 januari 1993.
• Titel: Greve
• Beroepen:
• Comte in Poitou.
• unknown in comte de Poitiers (1086-1126), duc d'Aquitaine et de Gascogne (1086-1126), voir croisades (1101), voir Sages et Troubadours et félibriges.
• unknown in Duke of Aquitaine.
• Duque da Gasconia e da Aquitancia in Aquitaine.
• in het jaar 1086 Duke of Aquitaine.
• in het jaar 1086 Count of Poitou.
• Hij is overleden op 10 februari 1126, hij was toen 54 jaar oudPoitiers
  Poitou-Charentes France.
• Hij is begraven in het jaar 1127 in Montierneuf, France.
• Een kind van Guillaume VIII Geoffroy d'Aquitaine en Hildegarde
• Deze gegevens zijn voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 22 januari 2019.

Gezin van Guillaume 'le Troubadour' "the Troubadou..." d'Aquitaine IX duc d'Aquitaine et VII comte de Poitou

Hij is getrouwd met Philippa Mathilda de Tolosa.

Zij zijn getrouwd in het jaar 1094, hij was toen 22 jaar oudFrance.

Kind(eren):

1. Guillaume X 'le Toulousain' ou 'le Saint' d'Aquitaine  1099-1137 
2. Agnès /Mathilde de Poitiers  ± 1100-± 1159 

Notities over Guillaume 'le Troubadour' "the Troubadou..." d'Aquitaine IX duc d'Aquitaine et VII comte de Poitou

GIVN William IX " The Troubador "
SURN von Aquitanien
NSFX Duke of Aquitaine
AFN 9HM1-H1
DATE 9 SEP 2000
TIME 13:15:34

GIVN William IX " The Troubador "
SURN von Aquitanien
NSFX Duke of Aquitaine
AFN 9HM1-H1
DATE 9 SEP 2000
TIME 13:15:34

Source #1: Frederick Lewis Weis, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700" - Seventh Edition, with additions and corrections by Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., assisted by Davis Faris (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1995), pp. 135; p. 102-103; 159

(VII of Poitou) - Count of Poitou 1086-1126, Duke of Aquitaine, crusader 1101, first known singer-poet in the vernacular.

Name Prefix: Duke Name Suffix: IX, Of Aquitaine, "The Troubador" Crusader

Alias: /COUNT/ REFERENCE: 1940 He was the Count of Poitou 1086-1126, Duke IX of Aquitaine (William IXof A quitaine), crusader in 1101, first known singer-poet "in thevernacular."Wi lliam the Troubedor, Duke of Aquitaine, 1086-1126. Assisted Philip I of F rance against William the Conqueror. He erected the Palace of Poictou, an d, after conferring large donations on the Church, died.

Vilhelm ?den Unge? var hertug av Aguitania og greve av Poitou 1086 - 1127.
Han var en modig kriger, elsket videnskap og poesi, skrev dikter og er en av de eldste
kjente diktere på romansk språk. Han hadde en sterk vilje, men var usedelig.
Vilhelm er den eldste kjente trubadur. I en provensalsk biografi heter det kort og godt:
?Han var en av de mest belevne menn som noensinne har levd og en stor kvinnebedårer - en
ridder, dyktig i våpenbruk og stadig innviklet i kjærlighetseventyr. I diktning og sang var han en
mester, og i mange år gjennomstreifet han verden for å vinne vakre damers kjærlighet.? Og at
han selv ikke holdt sine seire i kampen om de skjønne hemmelig, gir hans dikt tydelige
vitnesbyrd om.
Han gjorde krav på Toulouse hos Raimuind IV, erobret og oppga Toulouse to ganger,
og førte ellers en lang rekke kriger. Han bygde Partheney.
Vilhelm var tilstede ved konsiliet i Clermont i 1095, men først i 1100 dro han på korstog
med mer en 60.000 mann. De ble utsatt for et blodig angrep i Lilleasien, men nådde likevel
Jerusalem og leverte de ?vantro? slaget ved Rama 26.05.1102.
Han hjalp Alfons av Aragon mot Maurerne, og Ludvig den Store mot tyrkerne.
Han var første gang gift ca. 1089 med Irmgard av Anjou, men ble skilt ca. 1092.

William IX (b. Oct. 22, 1071--d. Feb. 10, 1127, Poitiers, Fr.), medieval troubadour, count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine and of Gascony(1086-1127), son of William VIII and grandfather of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
William IX spent most of his life in warfare, including leading an unsuccessful Crusade to the Holy Land (1101-02) and battling the Moors near Cordova (1120-23). His fame rests chiefly, however, on his being the first poet in the Provençal language whose works have come down to us. His chansons, or songs, are boisterous, amorous, humorous, usuallydelicate but sometimes coarsely obscene and tend, in the fashion of courtly love, to idolize one's lady love. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]
Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erectedthe Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died. The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII. [Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]

William IX (b. Oct. 22, 1071--d. Feb. 10, 1127, Poitiers, Fr.), medieval troubadour, count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine and of Gascony(1086-1127), son of William VIII and grandfather of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
William IX spent most of his life in warfare, including leading an unsuccessful Crusade to the Holy Land (1101-02) and battling the Moors near Cordova (1120-23). His fame rests chiefly, however, on his being the first poet in the Provençal language whose works have come down to us. His chansons, or songs, are boisterous, amorous, humorous, usuallydelicate but sometimes coarsely obscene and tend, in the fashion of courtly love, to idolize one's lady love. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]
Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erectedthe Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died. The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII. [Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]

William IX (b. Oct. 22, 1071--d. Feb. 10, 1127, Poitiers, Fr.), medieval troubadour, count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine and of Gascony(1086-1127), son of William VIII and grandfather of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
William IX spent most of his life in warfare, including leading an unsuccessful Crusade to the Holy Land (1101-02) and battling the Moors near Cordova (1120-23). His fame rests chiefly, however, on his being the first poet in the Provençal language whose works have come down to us. His chansons, or songs, are boisterous, amorous, humorous, usuallydelicate but sometimes coarsely obscene and tend, in the fashion of courtly love, to idolize one's lady love. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]
Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erectedthe Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died. The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII. [Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]

[s2.FTW]

Famed as a troubadour and an adulterer. See lengthy section in D.D. R. Owen's "Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend" (Blackwell, 1993/1996).Famed as a troubadour and an adulterer. See lengthy section in D.D. R. Owen's "Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend" (Blackwell, 1993/1996).

[elen.FTW]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 3, Ed. 1, Tree #4579, Date of Import: Jun 15, 2003]

Count of Poitous 1086-1126, Duke of Aquitaine, crusader 1101, first know singer-poet in the vernacular.

William IX of Aquitaine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

William IX of Aquitaine - Image from Bibliothèque Nationale, MS cod. fr. 12473, 13th centuryWilliam IX of Aquitaine (October 22, 1071 – February 10, 1126, also Guillaume or Guilhem d'Aquitaine), nicknamed the Troubador was Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitiers as William VII of Poitiers between 1086 and 1126. He was also one of the leaders of the crusade of 1101 and one of the first vernacular poets and troubadours.

[edit]
Life and Family
William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was an event of great celebration, but at first he was considered illegitimate by religious authorities because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth, where he sought and received papal approval of his marriage and children.

In 1094 he married Philippa of Toulouse, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including:

William X of Aquitaine, his heir.
Agnes of Aquitaine, who married (1) Aimery V of Thouars; (2) to King Ramiro II of Aragon
Raymond of Poitiers, ruler of the principality of Antioch, a crusader state
He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for some unknown offense. His response to this was to demand absolution from the Bishop of Poitiers at swordpoint. He was excommunicated the second time for carrying off Dangereuse, the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle, and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

This greatly offended both his wife and his son, William. According to Orderic Vitalis, Philippa protested her treatment in October 1119 at the Council of Reims, claiming to have been abandoned by the duke in favor of Dangereuse. She later retired to the convent of Fontevrault. Relations were only patched up with his son when the younger William married Ænor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband.

His 13th century Provençal biographer remembers him:

"[William IX] was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his attentions to ladies, and a fine composer and singer of songs."
[edit]
Military life
William invited Pope Urban II to spend Christmas 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to take the cross and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the First Crusade in 1099.

He arrived in the Holy land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a general is not very impressive. William fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness had his army ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own side. In September 1101 his entire army was destroyed by the Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped with a few survivors.

Later on in his life, William joined forces with the kingdoms of Castile (an old ally) and Léon. Between 1120 and 1123, Aquitanian troops fought side by side with queen Urraca of Castile, in an effort to conquer the Moors of Cordoba and complete the Reconquista. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later beqeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the 7th century.

William IX also provided troops to Philip I of France in his war against William the Conqueror.

[edit]
Poetry
William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a poet. He was he was the first known troubadour, or lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular called Provencal, or Occitan. Eleven of his songs have survived into the 21st century (Merwin, 2002). His artistic name was lo cons de Peitieus, and he was one of the most important troubadours of the Middle Age's Provençal literature. The topics varied, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual prowess, and feudal politics. His brashness, wit, and temper caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He stands as the first surviving troubadour, and one of the first Romance vernacular poets of theMiddle Ages, a cultural phenomenon that would culminate in Dante, Boccaccio, and Villon.

William was a man that loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. Upon returning from crusade, he abandoned his wife in favour of a married woman, known as Dangereuse (Dangerosa in Occitan) from his poems, and risked excommunication for the deed. He also composed a song about founding a convent in his lands, where the nuns would be picked from among the most beautiful women in the region, or from the best whores, depending on the translation. While this confirms William's lusty persona, it also makes a joke about the penitentiary convents for prostituted founded by the charismatic preacher Robert of Arbrissel. (Bond, xlix) In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also constructed the palace of Poitou, later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine. It survives to this day in the city of Poitiers.

One of William's poems is a musing on mortality; it begins: Since now I have a mind to sing/I'll make a song of that which saddens me, and goes on to say: For I have known delight and dalliance/Both far and near, yea and in my own dwelling/But this day, joy and dalliance, farewell. He died on February 10th, 1126, age 55.

[edit]
Sources
Bond, Gerald A., ed., transl. intro. The Poetry of William VII, Count of Poitier, IX Duke of Aquitaine, (Garland Publishing Co.:New York) 1982
Duisit, Brice. Las Cansos del Coms de Peitieus (CD), Alpha 505, 2003
Harvey, Ruth E. The wives of the 'first troubadour', Duke William IX of Aquitaine (Journal of Medieval History), 1993
Meade, Marion. Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1991
Merwin, W.S. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 2002. pp xv-xvi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41476-2.
Owen, D.D.R. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend
Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 2002
Verdon, J. La chronique de Saint Maixent, 1979.
Waddell, Helen. The Wandering Scholars: the Life and Art of the Lyric Poets of the Latin Middle Ages, 1955
[edit]
See also
Dukes of Aquitaine family tree
Provençal literature
Smythe, Barbara. Trobador Poets: Selections from the Poems of Eight Trobadors, including William IX, Duke of Aquitaine.
Preceded by:
William VIII Duke of Aquitaine Succeeded by:
William X
Count of Poitiers

First known singer-poet in the vernacular.

William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; 22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101 and the first troubadour, that is, vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language.

Ducal career
William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

[edit] Early career, 1088–1102
William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of only sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde, the daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. She was reputedly beautiful and well-educated, but also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She was considered a nag, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument, cutting off all contact with the outside world until suddenly making a reappearance at court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (1091).

In 1094 he remarried to Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual successor, William X. His second son, Raymond, eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon, establishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

[edit] Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118
William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop calmly completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess." Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevrault, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

[edit] Later career, 1118–1126
Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with Dangereuse had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus II and demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

[edit] Poetic career

William from a 13th-century chansonnier.William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a poet. An anonymous 13th-century vida of William remembers him thus:

The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He travelled much through the world, seducing women.

He was the first known troubadour, or lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular called Provençal or Occitan. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). They are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms de Peitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual prowess, and feudal politics. His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, and Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,
had brought the song up out of Spain
with the singers and viels...
William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. He also composed a song about founding a convent in his lands, where the nuns would be picked from among the most beautiful women in the region, or from the best whores, depending on the translation. While this confirms William's lusty persona, it also makes a joke about the penitentiary convents for prostitutes founded by the charismatic preacher Robert of Arbrissel. (Bond, xlix) In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much:
chivalry and pride;
and since it pleases God, I accept it all,
that He may keep me by Him.
I enjoin my friends, upon my death,
all to come and do me great honour,
since I have held joy and delight
far and near, and in my abode.
Thus I give up joy and delight,
and squirrel and grey and sable furs.
Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs".

He assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected the Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died.

[Weis 102] Crusader 1101

[Wikipedia, "William IX of Aquitaine", retrieved 16 Oct 07]
William IX of Aquitaine (October 22, 1071 - February 10, 1126, also Guillaume or Guilhem d'Aquitaine), nicknamed the Troubador was Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou as William VII of Poitou between 1086 and 1126. He was also one of the leaders of the crusade of 1101 and one of the first medieval vernacular poets.

His Occitan name was Guilhèm de Peitieus.

Life and family
William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was an event of great celebration, but at first he was considered illegitimate by religious authorities because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth, where he sought and received papal approval of his marriage and children.

He inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen, upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde of Anjou (the daughter of Count Fulk the Contrary). Ermengarde was beautiful and well-educated. She also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She would also nag her husband, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument, cutting off all contact with the outside world, before suddenly making a reappearance in the court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (in 1091).

In 1094 he married Philippa of Toulouse, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including:

William X of Aquitaine, his heir.
Agnes of Aquitaine, who married (1) Aimery V of Thouars; (2) King Ramiro II of Aragon.
Raymond of Poitiers, who became ruler of the principality of Antioch, a Crusader state.
He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from the Bishop of Poitiers at swordpoint, just as the Bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, and swore to kill the Bishop if he did not absolve the Duke. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply. When the Duke, satisfied, released him, however, the Bishop calmly completed reading the anathematizing, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the Duke to strike. William hesitated for a moment, before sheathing his sword: "Oh no. I don't love you enough to send you to paradise".

He was excommunicated a second time for 'abducting' Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa in Occitan), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault - the lady herself appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her being known as 'La Maubergeonne'), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

His wife, understandably, was enraged on her return to Poitiers from Toulouse to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her (since William was their feudal overlord), and whilst the Papal Legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess."

Humiliated, Duchess Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevrault, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. Philippa did not remain there long, however; the abbey records state that she died on the 28th of November 1118.

Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained - although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt, in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, terminating only with his capture by his father, as Ralph of Diceto claimed - records flatly contradict such a thing (Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113, at which point young William was thirteen, and the Duke's liaison with Dangereuse not yet begun). Father and son improved their relationship, however, after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had upon the death of her friend Duchess Philippa stormed down from Fontevrault to the Aquitainian court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine - presumably, in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims, being held by Pope Calixtus II, demanding that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Castilian forces fighting the Moors in Spain.

In 1122, he lost Toulouse, Philippa's dower land and now rightfully the domain of his eldest son, to Alphonse-Jourdain, the son and brother of the two previous usurpers. He did not trouble to reclaim it.

An anonymous 13th century biography of William, forming part of the collection Biographies des Troubadours, remembers him thus:

"The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He travelled much through the world, seducing women."

Military life
William invited Pope Urban II to spend Christmas 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to take the cross and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101 (mortgaging Toulouse back to Bertrand of Toulouse, the son of Raymond IV from whom it had been claimed by William), an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099.

He arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a general is not very impressive. William fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his army being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own side. In September 1101 his entire army was destroyed by the Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

Later on in his life, William joined forces with the kingdoms of Castile (an old ally) and León. Between 1120 and 1123, Aquitanian troops fought side by side with queen Urraca of Castile, in an effort to conquer the Moors of Cordoba and complete the Reconquista. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the 7th century.

Poetry
William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a poet. He was the first known troubadour, or lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular called Provençal or Occitan. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). They are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms de Peitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual prowess, and feudal politics. His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Boccaccio, and Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,
had brought the song up out of Spain
with the singers and viels...
William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. He also composed a song about founding a convent in his lands, where the nuns would be picked from among the most beautiful women in the region, or from the best whores, depending on the translation. While this confirms William's lusty persona, it also makes a joke about the penitentiary convents for prostitutes founded by the charismatic preacher Robert of Arbrissel. (Bond, xlix) In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian Era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much:
chivalry and pride;
and since it pleases God, I accept it all,
that He may keep me by Him.
I enjoin my friends, upon my death,
all to come and do me great honour,
since I have held joy and delight
far and near, and in my abode.
Thus I give up joy and delight,
and squirrel and grey and sable furs.
He died on February 10th, 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

[1452] WSHNGT.ASC file (Geo Washington Ahnentafel) # 4359108 = 1093252

PLANTAGENET.DOC file Count of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine

EDWARD3.TXT William VII (Guillaume) AQUITAINE (1071-1127)

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

SURN Aquitaine
GIVN Guillaume
_UID A9A8D0332B60A648AAD92FF8CDCBF7E3E91E
1 UID AE83E20F87EC764C9973E4343657F26862DE
1 UID A1B3BBD425AE104BA21C0B2BB7A5B5D1E7F7
DATE 21 May 2009
TIME 19:23:43

D'une grande gaïté, excomunié et pardonné plusieurs fois, il secourut plusieurs fois Alphonse d'Aragon en l'appuyant dans sa défense contre les Sarrazins.

Guillaume IX d'Aquitaine, Las Cansos del Coms de Peitieus (Les chansons du Comte de Poitiers).
Brice Duisit, vièle à archet et chant. CD Alpha 505, 2003.
1. Companhon farai un vers qu'er covinen,
2. Companho tant ai agut d'avols conres,
3. Interlude instrumental,
4. Ben vuelh que sapchan li plusor,
5. Companho non puosc mudar qu'eo no m'effrei,
6. Pus vezem de novelh florir,
7. Mout jauzens me grec en amar,
8. Farai un vers de dreyt nien,
9. Farai chansoneta nueva,
10. Ab la dolchor del temps novel,
11. Farai un vers pos mi soneilh,
12. Pos de chantar m'es pres talens,
13. Postlude instrumental,

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

William is styled as handome, courteous, complex and violatile. Addit ionally, he has been described as 'intelligent, gifted, artistic, idea listic with an instaiable thirst for sensual passion and adventurer' . He is also described as an'priapic old aristocrat who used to disqu ise himself as a death mute to seduce the wives of absent nobles in lo cal inns'. He is regarded as the first of the 'troubadours' and a poe t of considerable skill. His roggish behavior offended the sensibilit ies of the church and he was subsequently excommunicated. Because of her violent mood swings, Guillaume had no great difficulity in convinc ing the church that his marriage to Ermengarde should be annulled.

In about 1095, Guillaume considered taking the Cross and making a crus ade to Palestine, but came to think better of the idea. In 1095, Guil laume marched on Toulouse. At the time, he mortgaged the area to his wife Philippa's cousin Bertrand. He soon left Philippa as his regent in Poitiers and took up the Cross and headed east. He was a Crusader in 1101 who was in company with Stephen of Burgandy, Robert of Flander s, Robert of Normandie and Stephen of Blois. He witnessed his army be ing cut to pieces by the Turks at Heraclea. After the massacre, he li ngered in Antioch and Jerusalem on his way home, thrilled by Arab cult ure and translations of Greek and Roman classics.

Upon his arrrival back in Toulouse, he took up poetry and is also kno w as 'the first of the troubadours', one of the first known singer-poe ts in the vernacular. Guillaume's court soon gained a reputation for literature. Guillaume maintained a castle at Niort. As his wife Phil ippa became obsessed with the Abbey at Fontevrault, he began to turn h is passionate desires elsewhere. By 1115, he had developed a a violen t passion for the wife of his vassel Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, the Vi scount of Châtellerault. Her name was Dangerosa de L' Isle Bouchard . Guillaume passed on his domains in Toulouse to his son Guillaume, b ut the ducal authority that was attached to them had been undermined.
NOTE
GEDCOM created by TMG...
NOTE
GEDCOM created by TMG...

GIVN William IX " The Troubador "
SURN von Aquitanien
NSFX Duke of Aquitaine
AFN 9HM1-H1
DATE 9 SEP 2000
TIME 13:15:34

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected the
Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died.
The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII.

Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected the
Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died.
The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII.

#Générale#s:pa.2.596

note couple : s:ds02.76 ; ds03.763 ; Auréjac

note couple : s:ds02.76 et 82

note couple : s:Auréjac

note couple : s:Auréjac

{geni:about_me} NOTE: Please keep his name as Guillaume "le Troubadour" IX Duke of Aquitaine, VII Comte de Poitou

From Foundation for Medieval Genealogy:

GUILLAUME d’Aquitaine, son of GUILLAUME VIII Duke of Aquitaine [GUILLAUME VI Comte de Poitou] & his third wife Hildegarde de Bourgogne [Capet] (22 Oct 1071-10 Feb 1126).

The Chronicle of Saint-Maxence records the birth "1071 XI Kal Nov" of "Goffredo duci…Guillelmus filius"[456]. "Willelmi filius eius" subscribed the donation by "Willelmus dux Aquitanorum" of property to St Cyprien, Poitiers by charter dated [1073/87][457]. "Goffredus…dux Aquitanorum et Guillelmus filius eius" set entry conditions for monks at Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated 1078 or 1079[458].

He succeeded his father in 1086 as GUILLAUME IX Duke of Aquitaine, GUILLAUME VII Comte de Poitou. Albert of Aix records that "Guillaume comte et prince du Poitou de la famille d'Henri III empereur" crossed Hungary peacefully withWelf Duke of Bavaria and "la noble comtesse Ida de la marche d'Autriche", entered the territory of the Bulgars in which "le duc des Bulgares nommé Guzh" refused their passage into Adrianople, but that Guillaume captured "le duc des Bulgares" who was forced to allow the pilgrims to continue[459], undated but in a passage adjacent to text which records events in 1101.

According to Albert of Aix, after the army was dispersed in Asia Minor by the Turks, Duke Guillaume fled to Longinach near Tursolt, from where he was rescued and brought to Antioch by Tancred's forces[460].

He was a troubadour and composer of lyric poetry. The Chronicle of Saint-Maxence records the death "1126 IV Id Feb" of "Willelmus dux Aquitanorum" and his burial "Pictavis civitate apud Novum Monasterium"[461]. The necrology of the Prieuré de Fontaines records the death "10 Feb" of "Guillermus dux Aquitanorum"[462].

m firstly (1089, divorced 1090) as her first husband, ERMENGARDE d'Anjou, daughter of FOULQUES IV "le Rechin" Comte d'Anjou & his first wife Hildegarde de Baugency ([1068]-Jerusalem 1 Jun 1146). The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines refers to the daughter of "Fulco" as "comitissam Redonensem" but does not name her[463]. "Fulco Andegavensis comes" donated property to Angers with the consent of "filiis meis Gaufrido et Fulconello et filia mea Ermengarde" by charter dated 23 Jun 1096[464]. William of Tyre names her "Hermingerda", gives her father's name implying that she was born from his fifth marriage, and names her first husband "Pictaviensium comitis Willelmi", her divorce and her second husband "comes Brittaniæ"[465]. She married secondly ([1093]) as his second wife, Alain IV "Fergant" Duke of Brittany. The Gesta Consulum Andegavorum records that "comitissa Brittaniæ" was the daughter of Foulques & his first wife "filiam Lancelini de Baugenciaco", adding that she became a nun at "Jerusalem in ecclesia Sanctæ Annæ" after her husband died[466]. "Fulco Andecavorum comes nepos Goffridi Martelli…consulis" donated property to Angers with the consent of "Ermenjarde filia sua comitissa Brittaniæ" by charter dated 12 Apr 1109[467]. The necrology of Angers Cathedral records the death "Kal Jun" of "Ermengardis comitissa Britanniæ mater Conan ducis et soror Fulconis regis Hierosolymitani"[468]. The Annals of St Salvator Redon record that "Ermengardeque Alani conjugem, vere piam ac religiosam" was buried at the abbey of Redon[469].

m secondly (1094, divorced 1115) PHILIPPA [Mathilde] de Toulouse, daughter of GUILLAUME IV Comte de Toulouse & his second wife Emma de Mortain (-28 Nov 1117). The Chronicle of Saint-Maxence records the marriage of "Guillelmus" and "Philippam…filiam Willelmi comitis Tolosani et neptem Raimundi de Sancto Egidio"[470]. Robert of Torigny refers to, but does not name, "filiam unam" of "comes Tolosanus frater Raimundi comitis Sancti Ægidii" & his wife, who married "Guillermus comes Pictavensis et dux Aquitanorum"[471]. "Guillelmus…Aquitainie similiter et Vasconie dux et comes" confirmed donations to Sainte-Croix, Bordeaux by "genitor noster Guillelmus qui et Gaufridus vocatus est" with the consent of "Mathildis uxor…" by charter dated 23 Mar 1096[472]. It is assumed that Mathilde and Philippa refer to the same person. "Philippia" daughter of "Wilelmi comitis Tolose" and wife of Guillaume Comte de Poitou madea joint donation with her husband to Toulouse Saint-Sernin dated Jul 1098[473]. She is also named in an undated donation by Bertrand Comte de Toulouse which names her father but not her husband[474]. “Philippæ comitissæ…Emmæ filia” reached agreement with “Bernardus-Atonis filius Ermengardis” by charter dated 1114[475]. Orderic Vitalis recounts that "Hildegarde Ctss de Poitou" complained to the synod of Reims, held in Oct 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, that her husband had abandoned her for "Malberge wife of the vicomte de Châtellerault"[476]. This is inconsistent with the date of death of Philippa, shown above, not to mention the difference of first name. She became a nun. The necrology of the Prieuré de Fontaines records the death "28 Nov" of "Philippa monacha, Pictavensis comitissa"[477].

Mistress (1): AMAUBERGE [Dangerose], wife of AIMERY [I] Vicomte de Châtellerault, daughter of ---. She left her husband to live with Duke Guillaume, for which he was excommunicated. Orderic Vitalis recounts that "Hildegarde Ctssde Poitou" complained to the synod of Reims, held in Oct 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, that her husband had abandoned her for "Malberge wife of the vicomte de Châtellerault"[478].

-------------------------

Guillaume IX de Poitiers (Guilhem IX de Peitieus), né le 22 octobre 1071, mort le 10 février 1127, surnommé depuis le XIXe siècle le Troubadour, comte de Poitiers sous le nom de Guillaume VII et duc d'Aquitaine et de Gascogne de 1086 à sa mort. La forme limousine de son prénom est Guilhem. Il est également le premier poète connu en occitan. Il succède à son père Guillaume VIII à l'âge de 15 ans, ce qui lui vaut le surnom de Guillaume le Jeune au début de son règne. Son véritable nom en tant que duc d'Aquitaine devrait être en fait Guillaume VIII puisque son ancêtre Guillaume "Tête d'Etoupe", comte de Poitou de 936 à 963 n'a jamais porté - contrairement à une idée reçue - le titre de duc d'Aquitaine et ne fut donc pas le Guillaume III "Tête d'Etoupe", duc d'Aquitaine des listes traditionnelles des ducs d'Aquitaine depuis le XIXe siècle. Le titre de "duc des Aquitains" ne fut pris qu'en 965 par le fils de Tête d'Etoupe, Guillaume "IV" Fierabras (en réalité il devrait être Guillaume III), comte de Poitou (963-996).

Sommaire

1 Généalogie Ramnulfides

2 L'apogée de la principauté aquitaine

3 Un prince cultivé

3.1 Ami des artistes et troubadour lui-même

3.2 Exemple de chanson

4 Chronologie succincte

5 Voir aussi

6 Lien externe

Généalogie Ramnulfides

Fils de Guillaume VIII de Poitiers et d'Hildegarde de Bourgogne, il est brièvement marié à Ermengarde d'Anjou (fille de Foulque IV le Réchin, comte d'Anjou), avant d'épouser Philippe de Toulouse (fille de Guillaume IV, comte de Toulouse) ou Philippie en 1094, dont il a

Guillaume X de Poitiers, son héritier,

Agnès de Poitiers, future épouse du roi Ramire II d'Aragon,

Henri, abbé de Cluny,

Raymond de Poitiers, qui règne sur la principauté d'Antioche.

L'apogée de la principauté aquitaine

Il continue à développer l'embryon d'organisation administrative de ses prédécesseurs, avec l'ajout d'un prévôt à Surgères en 1087 et la création d'agents forestiers. Il prend et détruit le château de Blaye au comte Guillaume V d'Angoulême, afin de réfréner les entreprises de celui-ci en Saintonge.

Ayant acquis des droits sur Toulouse par sa femme Phillipa, il les fait valoir par les armes en prenant Toulouse en 1098. Guillaume le Troubadour rejoint la première Croisade, menée par Godefroy de Bouillon, après la chute de Jérusalem, en mars 1101. Il reste une année et demie en Orient, à combattre le plus souvent en Anatolie, où il est gravement battu deux fois.

Il est comte de Rouergue de 1110 à 1120.

Il s'empare de biens de l'Église en 1113 pour financer sa campagne contre Toulouse, et abandonne sa femme Philippie pour l'épouse de son vassal le vicomte de Châtellerault. Ces actes lui valent l'excommunication. Il marie néanmoins son fils Guillaume à la fille de sa maîtresse en 1121.

À la fin de sa vie, il participe à un épisode de la Reconquista : allié au roi de Castille et León, Alphonse le Batailleur, qui a épousé sa sœur Béatrice. De 1120 à 1123, ils guerroient pour la conquête du royaume de Valence, remportant notamment la bataille de Cutanda.

Un prince cultivé

Mais Guillaume IX de Poitiers marque surtout l'histoire comme un homme de lettres, qui sait entretenir une des cours les plus raffinées d'Occident.

Ami des artistes et troubadour lui-même

Il accueille ainsi à sa cour le barde Gallois Blédri ap Davidor, qui réintroduit sur le continent l'histoire de Tristan et Iseut.

Il est lui-même un poète, utilisant la langue d'Oc pour ses œuvres, poèmes souvent mis en musique.

C'est le premier poète médiéval, depuis saint Fortunat au VIe siècle (qui réside longtemps à l'abbaye Sainte-Croix de Poitiers), dont des œuvres, ni sacrées ni à la gloire de héros guerriers, soient conservées. Ses vers traitent le plus souvent des femmes, d'amour et de ses prouesses sexuelles. Sa poésie est parfois très crue (par exemple dans la chanson convenable, quand il demande à ses compagnons quel cheval il doit monter, d'Agnès ou d'Arsens), reflet d'une époque où l'Église n'a qu'une emprise limitée sur la société. Considéré comme un des précurseurs de l'amour courtois (fin amor en occitan), il est l'un des modèles influents de l'art des troubadours, dont la poésie va devenir plus galante.

À son retour de croisade, il répudie sa femme et prend pour maîtresse une femme mariée, qu'il invoque comme muse dans ses poèmes sous le nom de Dangereuse (la Maubergeonne). Il évoque aussi la fondation d'un couvent, dont les nonnes seraient choisies parmi les plus belles femmes du comté. À la bataille de Cutanda, il aurait combattu avec le corps de sa maîtresse peint sur son bouclier.

Il évoque également la guerre et des conséquences qu'elle a eu pour lui : selon Orderic Vital, il raconte sa captivité en Orient de manière plaisante.

Il fait de grosses donations à l'Église, dont certaines pour la fondations de monastères. Il reconstruit le palais des comtes de Poitiers.

Exemple de chanson

Voici une des œuvres composées par le comte duc, en langue d'oc, en limousin, accompagnée de la traduction française :

Je n'adorerai qu'elle ! (Chanson)

(occitan)

Farai chansoneta nueva,

Ans que vent ni gel ni plueva:

Ma dona m'assaya e-m prueva,

Quossi de qual guiza l'am;

E ja per plag que m'en mueva

No-m solvera de son liam.

(français)

Ferai chansonnette nouvelle

Avant qu'il vente, pleuve ou gèle

Ma dame m'éprouve, tente

De savoir combien je l'aime ;

Mais elle a beau chercher querelle,

Je ne renoncerai pas à son lien

Qu'ans mi rent a lieys e-m liure,

Qu'en sa carta-m pot escriure.

E no m'en tenguatz per yure,

S'ieu ma bona dompna am!

Quar senes lieys non puesc viure,

Tant ai pres de s'amor gran fam.

Je me rends à elle, je me livre,

Elle peut m'inscrire en sa charte ;

Et ne me tenez pour ivre

Si j'aime ma bonne dame,

Car sans elle je ne puis vivre,

Tant de son amour j'ai grand faim.

Per aquesta fri e tremble,

Quar de tam bon'amor l'am,

Qu'anc no cug qu'en nasques semble

En semblan del gran linh n'Adam.

Pour elle je frissonne et tremble,

Je l'aime tant de si bon amour !

Je n'en crois jamais née de si belle

En la lignée du seigneur Adam.

Que plus es blanca qu'evori,

Per qu'ieu autra non azori:

Si-m breu non ai aiutori,

Cum ma bona dompna m'am,

Morrai, pel cap sanh Gregori,

Si no-m bayza en cambr'o sotz ram.

Elle est plus blanche qu'ivoire,

Je n'adorerai qu'elle !

Mais, si je n'ai prompt secours,

Si ma bonne dame ne m'aime,

Je mourrai, par la tête de Saint Grégoire,

Un baiser en chambre ou sous l'arbre !

Qual pro-y auretz, dompna conja,

Si vostr'amors mi deslonja

Par que-us vulhatz metre monja!

E sapchatz, quar tan vos am,

Tem que la dolors me ponja,

Si no-m faitz dreg dels tortz q'ie-us clam.

Qu'y gagnerez-vous, belle dame,

Si de votre amour vous m'éloignez ?

Vous semblez vous mettre nonne,

Mais sachez que je vous aime tant

Que je crains la douleur blessante

Si vous ne faites droit des torts dont je me plains.

Qual pro i auretz s'ieu m'enclostre

E no-m retenetz per vostre

Totz lo joys del mon es nostre,

Dompna, s'amduy nos amam.

Lay al mieu amic Daurostre,

Dic e man que chan e bram.

Que gagnerez-vous si je me cloître,

Si vous ne me tenez pas pour vôtre ?

Toute la joie du monde est nôtre,

Dame, si nous nous aimons,

Je demande à l'ami Daurostre

De chanter, et non plus crier.

Précédé par Guillaume IX de Poitiers Suivi par

Guillaume VIII duc d'Aquitaine

comte de Poitiers

Guillaume X

Chronologie succincte

22 octobre 1071 : naissance ;

25 septembre 1086 : mort de son père Gui-Geoffroi-Guillaume et début de son règne ;

1094 : mariage avec Philippie de Toulouse ;

1097 : entrée à Toulouse ;

1099 : naissance de Guillaume le Toulousain ;

15 juillet : prise de Jérusalem ;

6 décembre : Guillaume IX prend la croix ;

5 septembre 1101 : l'armée poitevine est écrasé au Taurus ;

1102 : retour en Occident ;

1108 : accession au trône de Louis VI le Gros ;

1110 : Guillaume IX est blessé à Taillebourg ;

1115 : excommunication et rencontre avec la Maubergeon;

18 mai 1120 : participation à la victoire de Cutanda auprès d'Alphonse Ier d'Aragon ;

1121 : perte du Toulousain ;

1122 : naissance d'Aliénor d'Aquitaine ;

10 février 1126 : mort de Guillaume le Troubadour.

--------------------
William IX, Duke of Aquitaine
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IX,_Duke_of_Aquitaine

William IX (French: Guillaume de Poitiers ; Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have certain historical importance, he's best known as the earliest troubadour[1] — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose work survived.

Contents [hide]
1 Ducal career
1.1 Early career, 1088–1102
1.2 Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118
1.3 Later career, 1118–1126
2 Poetic career
3 See also
4 References
4.1 Notes
4.2 Bibliography
4.3 External links

[edit] Ducal careerWilliam was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimatebecause of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

[edit] Early career, 1088–1102William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of only sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde, the daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. She was reputedly beautiful and well-educated, but also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She was considered a nag, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument,cutting off all contact with the outside world until suddenly making a reappearance at court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (1091).

In 1094 he remarried to Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual successor, William X. His second son, Raymond, eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon, reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

[edit] Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess."Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevrault, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

[edit] Later career, 1118–1126Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with Dangereuse had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus IIand demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control of Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

[edit] Poetic career
William from a 13th-century chansonnier.William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour - a lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan. An anonymous 13th-century vida of William remembers him thus:

The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He traveled much through the world, seducing women.

He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). The song traditionally numbered as the eighth (Farai chansoneta nueva) is of dubious attribution, since its style and language are significantly different (Pasero 1973, Bond 1982). Song 5 (Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh) has two significantly different versions in different manuscripts. The songs are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms dePeitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual and literary prowess, and feudal politics. His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, and François Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,
had brought the song up out of Spain
with the singers and viels...

In Spirit of Romance Pound also calls William IX "the most 'modern' of the troubadours":

For any of the later Provençals, i.e., the high-brows, we have to... 'put ourselves into the Twelfth Century' etc. Guillaume, writing a century earlier, is just as much of our age as of his own.
—Ezra Pound, cited in Bond 1982, p. lxxvi
William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'llwrite a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much:
chivalry and pride;
and since it pleases God, I accept it all,
that He may keep me by Him.
I enjoin my friends, upon my death,
all to come and do me great honour,
since I have held joy and delight
far and near, and in my abode.
Thus I give up joy and delight,
and squirrel and grey and sable furs.
Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs".

[edit] See alsoDukes of Aquitaine family tree
[edit] References[edit] Notes1.^ Joseph Anglade, Grammaire de l'ancien provençal ou ancienne langue d'oc, 1921, Part I, Chapter 1, p. 33: ... les poésies du premier troubadour, Guilhem de Poitiers ... ("the poems of the first troubadour, Guilhem de Poitiers").
[edit] BibliographyBiographies des troubadours ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 7-8, 585-587.
Bond, Gerald A., ed., transl. intro. The Poetry of William VII, Count of Poitier, IX Duke of Aquitaine, (Garland Publishing Co.:New York) 1982
Duisit, Brice. Las Cansos del Coms de Peitieus (CD), Alpha 505, 2003
Harvey, Ruth E. The wives of the 'first troubadour', Duke William IX of Aquitaine (Journal of Medieval History), 1993
Meade, Marion. Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1991
Merwin, W.S. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 2002. pp xv-xvi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41476-2.
Owen, D.D.R. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend
Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 2002
Pasero, Nicolò, ed.: Guglielmo IX d'Aquitania, Poesie. 1973
Verdon, J. La chronique de Saint Maixent, 1979.
Waddell, Helen. The Wandering Scholars: the Life and Art of the Lyric Poets of the Latin Middle Ages, 1955
[edit] External linksComplete works (external link)
Works, translated by James H. Donalson (external link)
Smythe, Barbara. Trobador Poets: Selections from the Poems of Eight Trobadors
Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land
Preceded by
William VIII (VI) Duke of Aquitaine
1088–1126 Succeeded by
William X (VIII)
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Title: Count of Poitou. William was a leader of the First Crusade, much admired for his prowess, generosity & handsome appearance. He was the first known troubadour &, as such, a key figure in the history of European literature.

Sources:

The book, 'Richard the Lion-Hearted', by John Gillingham

The book, 'Kings & Queens of Great Britain'

The book, 'Eleanor of Aquitaine'

The book, 'An Autobiography of Eleanor'

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William IX of Aquitaine (October 22, 1071 – February 10, 1126, also Guillaume or Guilhem d'Aquitaine), nicknamed the Troubador was Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou as William VII of Poitou between 1086 and 1126. He was also one of the leaders of the crusade of 1101 and one of the first medieval vernacular poets.

His Occitan name was Guilhèm de Peitieus.

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'''WILLIAM IX OF AQUITAINE – THE TROUBADOUR: His role and that of his wife, Ermengarde, and his granddaughters - Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her daughter, Marie de Champagne – in the development of courtly love poetry and the Arthurian romances'''

•Extract from '''Duby, Georges: 'The Knight, The Lady, And the Priest. The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France'. 1983, Allen Lane, London p159''':

“ ..ERMENGARDE ..was given in marriage by her father Fouque Rechin, to William of Acquitaine. After William had repudiated her she was married to the count of Nantes. She tried to leave him for Fontevraud, asking that the marriagebe annulled. But the bishops refused, and Robert of Arbrissel had to send her back to her husband, exhorting her to be obedient, to accept her lot in life, her “order” as a wife and a mother. (Patrologie Latinae 176, 987) She wasto be patient and resigned, he said, and follow a little rule specially designed for her. It provided for much giving of alms, but neither too much prayer nor too much mortification, so that her body should remain healthy. What she was supposed to do was endure even under pain of death, even were she to be burned alive, as the wife of her great grandfather, Fouque Nerra had been burned for alleged adultery. But ERMENGARDE, the daughter of a prince, astounded the bishops at the Council of Reims in 1119 by appearing before them, widow at last, to accuse her first husband of bigamy. But then, had not she herself, they might have replied, in both her marriages, shown herself to be difficult and disobedient?”

“The intrusion of the churchmen into conjugal matters caused resentment on the parts of the husbands. WILLIAM OF AQUITAINE, supposed author of the earliest Occitan poems and the first exponent of courtly love, in the tenth song ofthe Jeanroy edition of his works makes fun of women who fall under the sway of priests and “frustrate the love of knights.” They commit mortal sin, he says, and should be burned at the stake, like wives who commit adultery. He then introduces the metaphor of the firebrand, with its obvious erotic connotation. True, the poem is supposed to be comic, to make men laugh amongst themselves. I interpret it not as a precursor to the chivalric debates between priest and knight that were to be popular a hundred years later, but as an angry expression of the animosity husbands felt against spiritual directors who challenged their power and encouraged their wives to be frigid. This is the only direct echo that has survived such feelings. At the point we have now reached, the beginning of the twelfth century, the voices of the servants of God drown out all other sounds.”

•Extract from '''Tannahill, Reay: Sex in History. 1980, Hamish Hamilton, London p262-3''':
“The credit for that [breathing life into courtly love poetry], as far as is known belonged to a southerner, one of the most libertine seigneurs of his day, GUILHEM, SEVENTH COUNT OF POITIERS AND NINTH DUKE OF AQUITANE, the most powerful nobleman in western Christendom.
Guilhem (1071-1127) must have been well acquainted with the Hispano-Arabic love poetry and philosophies of love. He was married to Phillipa of Aragon (even if he seems to have paid her little attention), while one of his sisters was the wife of Alfonso VI of Castile, and another of Pedro of Aragon. The story goes that, comfortably adjusted to a life of sensuality and seduction, GUILHEM found his activities seriously curtailed by the advent of a preacher, Robert d’Arbrissal, who succeeded in converting many of the ladies of his court to the belief that the fires of hell were being stoked for adulteresses. GUILHEM, deeply troubled, devoted his mind to the problem, and the result of his meditations soon became apparent in his poems. Frank eroticism had formerly been their style, but this now gave way to something that strongly resembled the ennobling love of Ibn Hazm – without the chastity. Love, GUILHEM argued, was not an abasement but an exaltation, not a sordid sin, but a divine mystery, and the lady within whose gift it lay was a goddess to be adored. Some scholars believe that his change of view came from the heart (eg Bezzola, ‘Guillaume IX et les origins de l’amour courtois’ Romania LXVI, 1940 pp145-237), although the aura of cynical expediency is not easy to dissipate, but whatever the truth he appears to have convinced his ladies, who were happy to take on the unfamiliar role of goddess. And even if, in cold fact, the new love was just as adulterous as the old, it sounded a good deal more refined. (Note – Love was considered in medieval times as a gift freely given (which remains true enough today) and this, by definition excluded it from marriage, a business contract in which personal considerations played no part.)
GUILHEM’S blend of love-desire and ennobling love soon became a favourite theme of wandering scholars, singers, poets and jongleurs (general entertainers), and a kind of formula began to develop.”

•Extract from '''Tannahill, Reay: Sex in History. 1980, Hamish Hamilton, London p266-7''':
“It was, appropriately enough GUILHELM’S [THE TROUBADOUR, OF ACQUITAINE] GRANDDAUGHTER, ELEANOR OF ACQUITAINE, who helped to establish the ideal of courtly love in northern France when she married Louis VII in 1137, but it did notentirely suit the northern temperament, which preferred good meaty adventure stories to undiluted sentiment. ELEANOR AND HER DAUGHTERS therefore turned their attention to encouraging a synthesis of the two.
For some centuries, the north had relied for its entertainment on the chansoms de geste (songs of action), which were long assonant poems delivered as a kind of recitative to a simple musical instrument and dealt mainly with the exploits of warriors and heroes, feudal lords, and Christian chevaliers of the time of Charlemagne. In the early twelfth century, the roman (romance) also developed, a tale in rhymed verse designed to be declaimed to a small audience and usually taking for its theme a quest or voyage through a dream world which was the scene of marvellous adventures in love and war. The early romans, reflecting the rediscovery of the Classical World, were historical dramaswith such titles as the Romance of Alexander, the Romance of Thebes, and the Romance of Troy, but for political reasons it became desirable to find subjects nearer home. ELEANOR, by this time (1170) married to Henry II of Normandy and England, was instrumental in bringing into fashion the Celtic myths of Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, an ‘ideal’ ancient society which lent itself admirably to being gilded with modern dreams and embroidered withthe symbols of courtly love. She herself patronized many distinguished troubadours, including Bernart de Ventadorn, while her daughters, notably MARIE DE CHAMPAGNE, followed in the family tradition. It was MARIE’s chaplain, Andreas, who produced the famous Art of Courtly Love, a treatise that owed something to Ovid as well as to Aquitaine, and it was MARIE too, who urged Chretien de Troyes to fuse tales of love with tales of action, to turn love into an adventure, and the knight into a knight-errant. This was the real beginning of the institution of chivalry.”

===Poetic Example===

“Comrades, I shall write a decent poem

As I don't know where to turn without being upset

Because I have had so many bad receptions,

So I'll write a verse about nothing at all

I'll write a verse, while I'm dozing off.

I would like people to know

Since we see blossoming again

That I shall write a new little song

To celebrate that I begin to love

With the sweetness of springtime

And I feel like singing.”

'''William IX The Troubadour of Aquitaine'''

- compiled & translation Sharon Doubell

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William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine

William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine was born on 22 October 1071. He was the son of William VIII Duke of Aquitaine and Hildegarde of Burgundy. William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine married Philippa of Toulouse, daughter of William IV Count of Toulouse and Emma of Mortain, in 1094. William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine died on 10 February 1126 at age 54.
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William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to thiswas to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess."Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IX_of_Aquitaine

William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; French: Guillaume de Poitiers) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitanlanguage — whose work survived.

Ducal career

William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

Early career, 1088–1102

William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of only sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde, the daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. She was reputedly beautiful and well-educated, but also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She was considered a nag, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument, cutting off all contact with the outside world until suddenly making a reappearance at court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (1091).

In 1094 he remarried to Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual successor, William X. His second son, Raymond, eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon, reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

The Duchess was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel and persuaded William to grant him land in Northern Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin Mary [2]. This became Fontevraud Abbey, which would enjoy the patronage of William's granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and would remain important until its dissolvement during the French Revolution.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118

William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to thiswas to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess."Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

Later career, 1118–1126

Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with Dangereuse had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus IIand demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control of Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

Poetic career

William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour — a lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan.

He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). The song traditionally numbered as the eighth (Farai chansoneta nueva) is of dubious attribution, since its style and language are significantly different (Pasero 1973, Bond 1982). Song 5 (Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh) has two significantly different versions in different manuscripts. The songs are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms dePeitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual and literary prowess, and feudal politics.

An anonymous 13th-century vida of William remembers him thus:

The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He traveled much through the world, seducing women.

It is possible, however, that at least in part it is not based on facts, but on literal interpretation of his songs, written in first person; in Song 5, for example, he describes how he deceived two women.

His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, andFrançois Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,

had brought the song up out of Spain

with the singers and viels...

In Spirit of Romance Pound also calls William IX "the most 'modern' of the troubadours":

For any of the later Provençals, i.e., the high-brows, we have to... 'put ourselves into the Twelfth Century' etc. Guillaume, writing a century earlier, is just as much of our age as of his own.

—Ezra Pound, cited in Bond 1982, p. lxxvi

William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'llwrite a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much:

chivalry and pride;

and since it pleases God, I accept it all,

that He may keep me by Him.

I enjoin my friends, upon my death,

all to come and do me great honor,

since I have held joy and delight

far and near, and in my abode.

Thus I give up joy and delight,

and squirrel and grey and sable furs.

Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs":

Then the Poitevin duke many times related, with rhythmic verses and witty measures, the miseries of his captivity, before kings, magnates, and Christian assemblies.

--------------------
Husband of Philippa of Toulouse
Noble familyHouse of Poitiers
FatherWilliam VIII of Aquitaine
MotherHildegarde of Burgundy
Born22 October 1071
Died10 February 1126 (aged 54)
--------------------

French nobility, also called the young or the Troubadour, Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony as Guillaume VII also Count of Poitou. He was the only son of Guillaume VIII and his third wife Hildegarde de Bourgogne. He succeeded his father in 1088 and married Ermengarde de Anjou in the following year. The marriage seems to have been not very happy. Her mood swings and unpredictable behavior, coupled with the failure to conceive a child led to the dissolution of the marriage.

Around 1094 he married countess Philippa de Toulouse, heiress of Guillaume IV. With her he had two sons and five daughters. His reign was dominated by the conflict with the St-Gilles family for the power in Toulouse. After he had conquered Toulouse for the first time he sold his rights to Bertrand de St-Gilles to have enough money for a crusade. In March 1101 he started with Welf IV of Bavaria for the Holy Land. In September, after passing through Constantinople his army was defeated at Heraclea. He was able to flee and reached Antioch with only six men.

After visiting Jerusalem he returned home in fall 1102. He kidnapped the willing Dangereuse de l'Isle-Bouchard, wife of Aimery de Chatellerault and installed her in his castle in Poitiers. She became his mistress and bore him fivechildren including Raimund of Antioch. When Philippa returned from Toulouse to find she had been replaced she appealed to the church and accused her husband openly of adultery. Even after being excommunicated he refused to part from Dangereuse. Philippa retired to Fontevrault where she died a year later.

Family links:
Parents:
Guillaume VI de Poitou (1024 - 1086)
Hildegarde de Bourgogne (1050 - 1120)

Spouses:
Hermengarde de Anjou Fergant (1068 - 1146)*
Ermengarde de Anjou (1068 - 1146)*
--------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IX,_Duke_of_Aquitaine

1. Acceded 1086. William assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected the Palace of Poitou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died. The dates and name are unclear.
Unknown GEDCOM info: MH:N107 Unknown GEDCOM info: C95A7F69-C451-4FBC-BF93-5195359E570B

[FAVthomas.FTW]

William IX spent most of his life in warfare, including leading anunsuccessful Crusade to the Holy Land (1101–02) and battling the Moorsnear Cordova (1120–23). His fame rests chiefly, however, on his being thefirst poet in the Provençal language whose works have come down to us.His chansons, or songs, are boisterous, amorous, humorous, usuallydelicate but sometimes coarsely obscene and tend, in the fashion ofcourtly love, to idolize one's lady love.

_P_CCINFO 1-2782

Guilherme IX da Aquitânia, o Trovador (22 de Outubro 1071 – 10 de Fevereiro 1126) foi Duque da Aquitânia e da Gasconha e Conde de Poitiers entre 1086 e 1126. Foi também um dos líderes da Primeira Cruzada e um dos primeiros trovadores e poetas vernaculares.

Guilherme não pode ter nascido em 1040 ou seus pais não podem ter se casado em 1045. Em 1045 Almodis tinha apenas 15 anos e já era seu segundo casamento, então a data errada deve ser a do nascimento de Guilherme (e a do casamento também, mas para mais e não pra menos).

from "Our Folk" by Albert D Hart, Jr.

859747678. Grev Wilhelm VII den Unge WILHELMSON av Poitou(20041) was born on 22 Nov 1071.(20042) He was a Greve in 1086 in Poitou.(20043) He died on 10 Feb 1126 in Poitiers.(20044) (IX. av Aqutanien) Han var en modig kriger, elsket vitenskap og poesi, skrev dikt, var en av de elst kjente diktere i romansk språk, han hadde en sterk vilje, men var usedelig. Han bemerket seg 2 ganer Toulouse som han gjorde krav på hos Raimund IV. men igjen måtte oppgi. Hanførte en lang rekke kriger, bygget Partheney. Han var til stede ved konciliet i Clermont 1095, men først i 1100 dor han på korstog med mer enn 60.000 mann, var da utsatt for et blodig angrep i Lilleasia, men nådde alikevel Jerusalem og leverte de vanntro slaget ved Rama 26.5.1102. Han hjalp Alfons av Aragonien mot Murerne, og Ludvig den Store mot tyrkerne. He was married to Philippa (Matilde) WILHELVSDTR av Toulouse in 1094.

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

ROYAL ANCESTORS,MLC

Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected thePalace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died.The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII.

Crusader in 1101

Singer and Poet

Grt-Grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her sister Petr

--Other Fields

Ref Number: 392

SOURCE NOTES:
www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal03095

RESEARCH NOTES:
Duke of Aquitaine (1086-1126)

William the Troubador
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=080ec599-4719-49a8-910c-9c68629c66d0&tid=822673&pid=-1364685167

William_IX_of_Aquitaine
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=9caa576e-0af3-4072-8e24-9345f216b3cf&tid=822673&pid=-1364685167

Guillaume IX "le Jeune" Hg av Akvitanien, Gr av Poitou
Känd som skald o trubadur

_P_CCINFO 1-20792
Original individual @P2442106117@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@) merged with @P2308128993@ (@MS_NHFETTERLYFAMIL0@)

Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected the
Palace of Poictou, and, after confering large donations on the Church, died.
The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII.

?? Line 2216: (New PAF RIN=10103)
1 NAME Guillaume VII (IX) Duke Of /AQUITAINE/
?? Line 9345: (New PAF MRIN=3907)
1 MARR
2 DATE 1089 DIV

William IX of Aquitaine
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=13858ae0-486a-4b5a-9f34-a21f5ed9703e&tid=6959821&pid=-1168208369

William IX of Aquitaine
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=13858ae0-486a-4b5a-9f34-a21f5ed9703e&tid=6959821&pid=-1168208369

[large-G675.FTW]

The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII.

_STATMARRIED

Name Prefix: Duke Of Aquitaine
Name Suffix: IX

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

!Name is; Guillaume VII (IX), Duke Of /AQUITAINE/

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